The smell of food ended the lecture, and the teary-eyed Chisato was punished with preparing food by herself.
The man was not cooking something you would eat in the dungeon, it was something complex in a pot. Not to mention that it was too much for one to eat by himself.
Perhaps that was needed to maintain that body, she thought, but she appeared to be wrong.
The man approached them carrying the food, and ate as if showing off.
It was a nice smelling stew with meat, while they had soup and protein bars.
The smell was enough to make her hungry, but…
“It’s good, so good!!”
The man yelling and shoveling down food was so repulsive, that it made her lose her appetite.
Ruri said something to him, followed by Toufu, who for some reason received food.
Apparently it was good, and the man seemed pleased, because he started serving everyone in the party.
“Me too?”
“I wouldn’t leave one person out while everyone else eats.”
He said, and the stew really was good.
Eating from the same pot as the others felt wrong, but that was how they met Haruto Tanaka.
◇ ◇ ◇
Their progress in this exploration was not good.
They advanced while collecting things like medicinal herbs, and set a new record for the amount collected.
“Hey, are you still picking? Half the cart is full of it.”
She looked at the cart, and saw half of it was dominated by bags full of what she picked.
“It’s still the twenty-fifth floor. This is what happens when we find a big field of herbs.”
Said Takeshi with a firm nod.
Even after an extra day on the twenty-fifth floor to pick, there was no end in sight.
If they went according to their plan, they should have gone past the twenty-sixth floor, and should be looking for somewhere to camp on the twenty-seventh. But as they explored the twenty-fifth, they found not just medicinal herbs, but also a lot of herbs used for magic potions and antidotes.
Chisato saw it as they passed by it and reported it to Toufu, and Hajime said ‘let’s go get it all!’ with a thumbs up and a smile.
Hajime managed the party’s assets, so he could not let a chance to make money get away.
Chisato regretted it as a failure.
They should be going to the thirtieth floor, but the field of herbs kept them there.
But as Chisato thought about that, Naito raised his voice with surprise as he picked herbs.
“Oh? Oh? Ooh!? A treasure chest!?!?”
Naito ripped them from the ground not knowing what he was picking, and then he found a treasure chest hidden in the grass.
The others rushed towards him when they heard about a treasure chest.
This was their fifth, and third since Chisato joined.
So far, they found two accessories and two potions, meaning they were not too lucky, but they still looked at it with expectations.
As everyone watched, Naito gulped and opened it.
There was staff.
A wooden staff with vines wrapped around it. The vines were one with the staff, not just wrapped, and seemed to function as a part of it.
“Chisato, go ahead.”
The staff that was to be appraised was heavier than it looked.
ーーー
Dryad staff
A staff exclusively for users of the wood attribute.
It boosts the power of wood magic. The vines around it can be whips if infused with magic energy and used as weapons.
ーーー
Chisato told the results of Appraisal, to a subdued reaction.
Ruri could use a staff, but if only wood magic users could wield this one, they had no use for it, and it could not be worth that much.
“I guess we’re selling it, since we can’t use it. Any objections?”
No one disagreed with Toufu.
They could not expect a boost to their fighting power from this staff, so Chisato thought it should be sold too.
The content of the treasure chest was not much, but it was still money, so they could not complain. Quite the contrary.
They ended the day with a lot of picking.
“T-treasure chest!!”
The next day, another treasure chest was found.
ーーー
Revolver (Magic blade revolving style magic gun)
A revolver that can hold six magic bullets.
It can create a blade of magic energy, the length of which can be regulated to the length of a longsword at its biggest.
It cannot shoot bullets while the magic sword is active.
ーーー
◇ ◇ ◇
Chisato sat on her bed, using her revolver to get used to it.
It was called a revolver, but it looked like something out of sci-fi. It had a boorish cover from the muzzle to the hammer, and while it was mostly black, it had yellow lines on the side. Thankfully, it was easy to hold.
She twirled it and held it, and pointed it at her reflection in the mirror.
“It doesn’t suit you, Chisato.”
She whispered while holding it.
She could not criticize others while using that, she said to herself. And she failed to realize someone could see her.
“What are you doing?”
“Kyah!? Hajime! Don’t just come in!”
Her face turned red, as she assumed he saw everything.
Hajime did not get a response when he said the food was ready, so he went in to see what happened.
Geez! Yelled an angry Chisato while throwing a slipper, before closing the door and rolling on the floor.
◇ ◇ ◇
They had a party to celebrate their return from the dungeon the previous day.
They found Tanaka along the way and pretty much dragged him along, but he got fired up talking about dodgy conspiracy theories with Toufu.
By the end, he was in a miserable state as Toufu clung to him, but he was not mad, and the impression Chisato had of him turned in a favorable direction.
As she thought about what happened the previous day, she got a message from Mio. It was asking if they could meet, and it seemed Mayuri and Saki would be there as well.
She said sure, and Mio said they would meet around noon.
◇ ◇ ◇
After having breakfast, she left the house early because she felt like walking. She was supposed to meet the others at the station close to the dungeon, so she took it easy.
The previous day, they set a new record for money earned in an exploration.
The many medicinal herbs, the trent’s random fruit, and the dryad staff combined meant their budget almost doubled.
Conversely, their exploration stagnated, so Chisato had complaints. But in the end, she was satisfied with what she felt was the only weapon she could use, a new magic gun.
That should make it so she would not be a burden in battle.
She was trying hard to boost her power. She bought equipment for the others if she found it, but never found a magic gun.
There was not much demand thanks to their small user base, but police and the army had permission to use powerful sniper rifle style magic guns. Although these were not out in the market.
If she did get one, it would be confiscated, or worse, she could get arrested, so she could not use it anyway.
◇ ◇ ◇
“…Haruto.”
“Ou, I haven’t seen you since yesterday, why are you here so early?”
She walked through the park after getting off at the station, and sat on a bench, watching children play. And then she saw Tanaka Haruto mumbling to himself like a creep.
His serious eyes as he looked at the kids made her talk to him without thinking. She did not think he was one to commit a crime, but those eyes seemed to have something not good behind them.
“What are you doing?”
She reached for the smartphone in her bag just in case.
“Just thinking. I have problems too you know?”
Tanaka snorted and sipped his ice coffee.
Chisato let go of the smartphone, thinking he was not dangerous, and told him about how people were looking at him.
She had to, or mothers would start calling the police.
“…Seriously? There’s someone that suspicious here?”
“It’s you! You keep muttering to yourself while watching kids. How could you not look suspicious!?”
“Me!? Ah… Sorry.”
He apologized, seemingly not having noticed the eyes around him.
But since he could not stay there, they moved to a cafe.
◇ ◇ ◇
“Why you’re exploring the dungeon?”
“Yes. Toufu wants to know about it, Hajime wants money to start a business, Takeshi wants to be stronger, Ruri wants skills, Naito thinks it’s cool. Everyone has a goal. Then what am I doing? If I just wanted to make a living, I could do it on the twenty-first floor.”
She couldn’t help but sigh.
It was one thing to be impressed by others, but it was not good to let his purpose be swayed by someone else’s opinions.
“Why are you asking me? How about you figure it out as you explore, instead of letting others influence you? You won’t stop regardless, right? Then find your objective as you explore.”
“My objective… Yes. Thanks! I’m going to the dungeon!”
He gulped down his frappecino, got up, and tried to leave.
His sudden actions led her to grab his hand to stop him. And before she knew it, she cast Appraisal.
ーーー
Haruto **ka (24)
Level: 17
Skills: Ear** Magic, Tr**, Heal** Magic, *** Grasp, Tough**, ** Control, Physical **, Poison Resistance, ***, See Through, ***, Sewing, ***, Dismantling
Status: Blessing of ***
ーーー
What was that?
She could see they were Tanaka’s stats, but she could not make heads or tails of it.
She heard there were times when a gap in strength made it unreadable, but she had never come across it before.
And the number of skills…
Normally, people got a skill after beating the boss of the tenth floor. After that, they could either beat a lot of monsters in irregular encounters, or strong unique monsters. But this was rare.
She could not read most of it, but he definitely had fourteen skills.
Who was he?
That question crossed her mind, and she let go of Tanaka when she got a message from Mio.
She grabbed her smartphone, and saw Tanaka leave.
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Can we get to the part where Chisato’s entire team dies? Or any interesting plot developments? The author keeps adding these new POVs, and I just want to skip most of them. Only one chapter out of these four contains some interesting new perspective on already known events; the rest is just pointless fluff.